Radio-frequency signals transmitted along a conductive chip-to-chip transmission path tend to reflect from impedance discontinuities along the path length, traveling back down the transmission path toward the signal source and thus distorting subsequently transmitted signals.
High-impedance signal receivers constitute primary sources of impedance discontinuity in modern chip-to-chip signaling systems and are typically compensated by an impedance-matching termination load (i.e., resistance or impedance that matches the characteristic impedance of the transmission path) coupled to the transmission path in close proximity to the signal receiver—for example, on the same integrated circuit (IC) die or in the same IC package. Unfortunately, this receiver-site termination arrangement results in termination power dissipation that, while negligible in many signaling applications, imposes considerable cooling overhead in emerging cryogenic applications.